"Fifty six, huh?"
Good grief.
So he was not just bragging about killing fifty six Sea Emperors anymore. Now it had upgraded into fifty six kings of an era.
To get that many "kings," he would probably have to start all the way back from Joy Boy versus the Twenty Kings and work his way forward.
The mountain bandits clearly did not have the courage to lay a hand on Ozz. The guy looked terrifyingly strong at a glance, so Ozz simply watched quietly.
Even Shanks had not gotten angry, so why would he bother to step in?
At the same time, he noticed something else.
Off to the side, Luffy had already finished chomping down the Gum Gum Fruit.
Truth be told, his attention had been entirely on the "Mountain Bandit King" just now. He had not been watching Luffy closely at all. In that tiny gap, the brat had already gobbled up the whole fruit.
What a terrifying power of world correction.
As the bandits swaggered off, Luffy was just about to explode and ask Shanks why he had not fought back.
But Ozz stood up first.
He ruffled Luffy's hair, then patted Shanks on the shoulder, turned, and walked out of the bar.
Luffy was still confused, but Shanks, whose Observation Haki and control over his own body were ridiculously sharp, felt something was off.
It was like.
Something was missing.
…
Sitting on the back of the Seagull King, Ozz watched Foosha Village grow smaller and smaller behind him.
As for the final act between the Mountain Bandit King, the Lord of the Coast and all those "kings," Ozz honestly was not that interested.
Shanks had his own pirate career to run and his own destiny to shoulder.
Ozz had things to do too. There were still a lot of preparations unfinished.
"Next up, the Whitebeard Pirates."
He took out the Dark Dark Fruit. First stop was going to be Little Black Fatty.
After all, that guy was one of the key players in the future.
In Ozz's eyes, someone like Teach was absolutely necessary. Precisely because there were sinister, wildly ambitious men like him, adventures on the sea would not degenerate into children's games.
Just like in the old era, if there had been no Rocks, things would have been a lot less exciting.
He was the final boss of the God Valley raid, after all.
As his son, Ozz was not the least bit worried that Teach would one day turn on him.
If anything, he hoped the man could make the future less boring and add more chaos and fun to the world.
The closer you got to the upper limit of strength, the less you cared about profit and gain. Ozz cared more about whether things would be interesting.
Besides, Teach pretty much came with a protagonist template.
Roger and Garp had worked together to take down his old man.
After scheming and enduring for years, he finally sent the son of his enemy to the execution platform and made the grandson pay with grievous injuries and the loss of his brother.
He even left three scars across Red Hair's face, symbolizing the Blackbeard who would rebel against the fate imposed by the Celestial Dragons.
If you asked Ozz, that was what a true member of the D clan looked like.
If nothing else, that life story and decades of patient plotting alone made Ozz want to invest a Dark Dark Fruit in him.
Just not yet.
Ozz also wanted to imitate Shanks, to hand the right fruit to the right person at the right moment.
And if you really thought about it.
The Dark Dark Fruit probably had its own will when choosing its user too. It had guided Teach to murder his own crewmate and then devour the fruit.
Dusk fell.
The Whitebeard Pirates had just wrapped up another day of feasting. One by one, the crew members stumbled back to their own cabins.
Teach grinned his dopey grin, belly bulging, and waddled back to his room.
The place was pitch dark. He fumbled out a match and struck it, coaxing out a thin tongue of flame.
The faint light bloomed, and in that instant, it lit up the figure sitting right across from him.
A handsome man who had activated "Observation Kill."
The moment he saw that shadowy figure, Little Black Fatty's expression changed completely. Cold sweat poured down as he opened his mouth to shout.
"Black Gun Ozz?!"
Ozz sat calmly in the chair, clearly unconcerned about the volume of his voice.
"It is useless. Even if someone sweeps this room with Observation Haki, they will not notice I am here."
As for sound, he had already carved out a vacuum layer around the room. Not a whisper could leak out.
Hearing that, Teach started sweating even harder. His jaw hung open, pupils trembling violently. His expression was almost identical to that scene in the original story when he met Rayleigh.
The match went out quickly. Ozz snapped his fingers and a flame rose up at the tip of the oil lamp.
The dim yellow glow illuminated the room and traced the lines of their faces in the half light.
Ozz looked perfectly composed.
Teach looked absolutely terrified.
As a schemer, he was very good at bowing his head when needed. He was already preparing to beg for his life.
But Ozz was in no hurry. Instead, he slowly took something out of his coat.
Little Black Fatty's eyes were immediately glued to it.
"T… that is…"
Ozz smiled, casually tossing it up and down in his hand. Watching Teach stare without blinking, he placed it on the table between them.
It was just one step away from Teach.
All he had to do was reach out.
"I am here to make a deal with you. Interested?"
Ozz spoke, but Teach clearly had no mind to listen, or was at least pretending to listen.
In his head, he kept running the same script.
If he grabbed it and took a bite right now, then rushed out to find Pops and ask him to hold Ozz off.
Would he be able to profit from the situation like a fisherman watching the fight?
If Ozz had developed a mind reading version of Observation Haki by now, he would definitely have said.
Now that is a very Blackbeard thought.
In Teach's own estimate, even if he could not beat Ozz, he should at least be able to protect himself for an instant or two, just enough to last until Pops arrived.
After all, this was the guy who would one day carve scars into the face of Red Hair. Teach might not look impressive, but his mastery of Haki was nothing to sneeze at.
Once he decided, he acted.
Just as Ozz was about to continue speaking, Teach suddenly lunged forward and grabbed the Dark Dark Fruit from the table.
He jerked his hand up, ready to shove it straight into his mouth.
But just as it was about to touch his jagged teeth.
"Teleportation Baton."
The fruit flickered and reappeared in Ozz's hand. Teach bit nothing but air, rattling his teeth and making his jaw ache.
"You are not very honest, Teach."
Ozz looked at him with a half smile.
When Teach saw the fruit slip from his fingers and reappear in Ozz's palm, he panicked.
"N… no, it is not like that, I can explain."
Ozz could not be bothered to listen. He understood exactly what kind of person Teach was.
He waved lazily and continued from where he had left off.
"Promise me one thing and the Dark Dark Fruit is yours. Are you willing?"
Those words made the hope that had just crashed in Teach's chest ignite all over again. He bared his big grin.
"Zehahaha. A man like you actually has something he needs my help with?"
"Whatever it is, spit it out."
The corner of Ozz's mouth lifted slightly. His voice was calm, but it made Teach's expression freeze on the spot.
The man stared, stunned.
"What I want to know is."
"What secret did your father, Rocks, leave behind for you?"
"And what is the method for one person to wield multiple Devil Fruit abilities?"
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